It’s been a little over a year since Toyota built a turbocharged GR86 with all-wheel drive, and now Subaru is following suit. The newly established Sports Vehicle Planning Office is developing a lifted BRZ to compete in the All Japan Rally Championship. Full technical specifications have yet to be revealed, but we do know the rally car is turbocharged and sends power to all four wheels.
There’s a lot to unpack from the sole teaser image released over the weekend by Subaru during the opening round of the 2026 Super Taikyu series. Although it’s based on the BRZ, the rally car features revised bodywork with boxy wheel arches and a massive rear wing. You can also spot a roof scoop and what appear to be vertical hood vents.
The lifted BRZ boasts generous ground clearance, plenty of suspension travel, and chunky tires at both ends. Subaru has also redesigned the front bumper, and we’re getting strong Miata vibes. We can’t see the rear of the car just yet, but it looks as though the overhangs are much shorter, while the taillights also appear to be different.
How much has been retained from the standard car remains unclear, but Subaru did say the wheelbase is carried over. As you can imagine, engineering the sports coupe with an AWD setup that it was never meant to have brings packaging challenges. Adding a turbocharger introduces yet another layer of complexity.
As exciting as this all is, don’t get your hopes up for a production version. The high-riding BRZ is strictly a rally car, with no official word from Subaru about a potential road-going model. However, the Japanese brand says the purpose of its Sports Vehicle Planning Office is to connect the teams working on street cars with those on the motorsport side.
Motor1's Take: Considering the Sports Vehicle Planning Office has just been established, don’t count on a street-legal product anytime soon. It might already be too late for the current BRZ, given that the second generation has been around for nearly six years. Nevertheless, closer collaboration between engineers working on road and race cars should yield promising results.
In the meantime, the rally-spec BRZ with a turbo and all-wheel drive will be introduced at some point during the first half of this season's All Japan Rally Championship.
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Context:
Subaru's new rally BRZ features turbo power, AWD, and lifted suspension but won't reach production.
Context:
This signals Subaru's renewed commitment to performance motorsports after years of limited sports car development.
Context:
Toyota built a similar turbocharged AWD GR86 concept over a year ago, sparking this rivalry revival.
